1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and equipment for biofeedback of alterable characteristics of the brain with the objective of altering blood flow and encouraging vascular growth in a manner conducive to the mental health of a human being.
2. Brief Description of the State of the Art
With the advent of SPECT, PET and fMRI, blood flow in various brain areas is increasingly being correlated with various brain disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Schizophrenia, Parkinson's Disease, Dementia, Alzheimers Disease, Endogenous Depression, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, memory loss, brain trauma, Epilepsy and others.
These disorders are, at present, mainly treated with psychoactive drugs and or psychotherapy. Such treatments are marginally effective. The drugs require continuous treatment schedules and have serious side effects such as Tardive Diskinesia, sleep disruption, drowsiness, dullness, skin disorders and digestive interference. Psychotherapy is of limited usefulness in these disorders and is very expensive.
Previous brain blood flow measurement techniques have required injection of radioactive materials into the blood stream or irradiation of brain tissue with radio frequency power. These are, at present, slow and expensive, requiring minutes to achieve a measurement. Consequently, at present, many important clues to brain operation are completely obscured. See "Interactions Between Electrical Activity and Cortical Microcirculation Revealed by Imaging Spectroscopy: Implications for Functional Brain Mapping", Malonek, D. and Grinvad, A., Science, May 26, 1997, pp. 551-554. Continued research and development are making inroads on these obstacles and it is anticipated that the radioactive tracer and radio frequency irradiation techniques will eventually become useful for biofeedback.
Research has demonstrated that low frequency electrical activity of the brain, as measured by the EEG, is negatively correlated with brain blood flow. ADD as well as many other brain disorders are characterized by excessive, slow wave activity and below normal blood flow to one or more brain areas. See "Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Adults with Hyperactivity of Childhood Onset", Zametkin, A. J. et al., New England Journal of Medicine, Sep. 15, 1990, pp. 1361-1366.
In recent years Electroencephalographic (EEG) Biofeedback has been used for treating brain disorders with considerable success. A limited course of treatment produces lasting effects. EEG Biofeedback has made great strides in the treatment of some of these problems. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is on outstanding example. The EEG Biofeedback technique makes non-invasive measurements of brain electrical activity, modifies them to enhance important characteristics and attempts to present the result in a readily understandable form to the patient so that the he can modify the EEG in a healthful direction.
EEG Biofeedback is difficult to utilize because of the required multiple electrodes and the required skin preparation for each electrode. See "Muscles Alive", J. V. Basmajian and C. J. Deluca, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, pp. 22-23. It is also sensitive to artifacts due to eye and muscle movement. This is especially troublesome near the prefrontal cortex, an important brain area involved in executive functions, planning, and working memory. The complex electrical signals obtained are ambiguous and represent many simultaneous events. They are difficult for the trainee to interpret and require many sessions before control is learned. The cost of present day EEG Biofeedback equipment, the skill required to operate it, and the total required treatment time has made this technique so costly that only a small proportion of the estimated eleven million handicapped people in the United States who need access to this technology can afford it.
Development of a low cost non-invasive brain blood flow monitor represents a great improvement in the field of biofeedback and provides, for the first time, an easily used, safe method of treating many devastating brain disabilities, satisfying a long felt need of the mental patient and the mental health professional.